Queen mates

How to spot it

Most mates in real games are delivered by the queen right next to the enemy king, protected by another piece. This is called the kiss of death: the king cannot take the queen because it is protected, and the queen covers almost every flight square on its own.

The classic targets are h7 and g7 (h2 and g2 for White’s king). Queen plus bishop on the b1-h7 diagonal (Bd3 and Qh5) or on the long diagonal (Bb2 and Qg7), and queen plus knight (Ng5 supporting Qh7) are the patterns to know by heart.

A pawn can be the supporter too. In Lolli’s mate a pawn on f6 protects the queen on g7; in Damiano’s mate a pawn on g6 protects the queen on h7. Often a rook is sacrificed on h8 first, just to bring the queen to the h-file with check.

What to look for: which squares next to the enemy king are attacked by two of your pieces? If your queen can land on one of them, it is usually mate.

Puzzles

Ten puzzles, rated 750 to 1650. A wrong move shows the engine’s refutation, and a missed puzzle comes back for review.